PSYCH253 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Norm (Social), Stationary Point, Optical Illusion

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYCH253
• Professor: Christopher Lok

Document Summary

Conformity: a change in behaviour or belief to accord with others. 3 varieties of conformity: compliance, obedience, and acceptance. Compliance: conformity that involves publicly acting in accord with social pressure while privately disagreeing. Obedience: acting in accord with a direct order. Acceptance: conformity that involves both acting and believing in accord with social pressure. Sherif wondered whether it was possible to observe the emergence of a social norm in the lab. In his experiment, he took advantage of an optical illusion called the autokinetic phenomenon. Autokinetic phenomenon: self motion; the apparent movement of a stationary point of light in the dark. As(cid:272)h"s e(cid:454)pe(cid:396)i(cid:373)e(cid:374)ts la(cid:272)k (cid:373)uda(cid:374)e (cid:396)ealis(cid:373) of e(cid:448)e(cid:396)(cid:455)da(cid:455) (cid:272)o(cid:374)fo(cid:396)(cid:373)it(cid:455), (cid:271)ut the(cid:455) ha(cid:448)e e(cid:454)pe(cid:396)i(cid:373)e(cid:374)tal realism; participants became emotionally involved in the experience. He had people liste(cid:374) to othe(cid:396)s" judge(cid:373)e(cid:374)ts of (cid:449)hi(cid:272)h of th(cid:396)ee (cid:272)o(cid:373)pa(cid:396)iso(cid:374) li(cid:374)es (cid:449)as e(cid:395)ual to a standard line and then make the same judgement themselves.